The development will be built on a little more than 378 acres of property located along East National Road that was annexed to the city of Springfield from Springfield Twp.
The land includes the former Melody Drive-in Theatre that has inspired the name of the proposed development, which will be called Melody Place.
Annexed land for the project also includes the former next edge development site that was owned by the Community Improvement Corporation of Springfield and Clark County.
A request to rezone the 378 acres of land to a planned development district is currently being considered by Springfield city commissioners, who are expected to vote on that matter at their next public meeting on June 21.
The scale of the proposed housing development would make it the largest project of its kind in the area in decades. Though the plan currently is to build around 1,250 housing units. That number will likely be closer to 1,100 or 1,150, once everything is finalized, said Jeff Fontaine, the president of Borror.
“Our ranges are always zoned on the higher end. That doesn’t mean that we are always going to buildout to max density. We would expect that (1,250 number total) would be the peak of which anything would be built to,” Fontaine said.
A request to the city for rezoning put the number of housing units at up to 737 single-family homes, up to 375 multi-family homes and up to 146 patio-style homes. However, Fontaine said those numbers are liable to change and that a mixture of different types of housing, involving different architecture, designs and builders would be built throughout the project.
The numbers listed in the application are the max number of units that would be built. Those housing units would be built in phases and the final numbers of new homes could be lower, Fontaine added.
“The process is continuing to go well, and we feel that the market is still primed for this opportunity. We would like to get started with the initial site commencement this year. You would start to see vertical development in (the middle of 2023) and actual housing units and commercial spaces hopefully by early to mid 2024,” Fontaine said.
The goal would be to offer a mixture of different housing and retail and other commercial space by the first 24 months of the project, he said.
The buildout for the project will be seven to 10 years and single-family homes will range from $300,000 to $600,000 and will likely be two-stories. Patio and multi-family homes are expected to be rentable units, according to a presentation to Springfield commissioners during their public meeting this week.
The development will include landscaping and greenery as well as space for future mixed-use development and land for retail, restaurants and other commercial uses.
The total costs/investment of the project upon full completion is estimated to be over $400 million.
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